Last Full Day in London

After a wonderful sleep in we set off today with no real agenda other than to swing by Hamley's Toy Shop on Regent's Road. After a quick detour at King's Cross Station, we did just that! We got there not too long after opening and so it was much less crowded than other times we had walked by, so that was very nice. It is basically wonderland for kids. There are 6 floors of toys, from baby things to video games and everything in between. Josh especially loved Floor 5 with its large selection of Lego and a huge candy shop. I do mean huge! I think a large portion of our visit to Hamley's was spent deciding what kind of sweet to buy! In the end, Josh chose a caramel cupcake and a British candy called Millions. They look like tiny pieces of bubble gum and the texture is similar, only it isn't gum. It's kind of like when you bite into the hard shell on a gum ball. Of course, he did get bubblegum flavor. But, they are pretty tasty - we all liked them! The only down side to the store was that we wanted to get Josh something, but everything he like was much too big to take home, or it was something we could easily get in the states. I think he left the store, not quite as excited as when he went in, but he still really liked it.

After toy-browsing it was time for our favorite past time - the hunt for lunch! Jeff really wanted some type of Indian food so he had already found a place nearby called Kati Roll that did wraps. We ordered two Chicken Tikka rolls and waited. And waited. Then waited some more... But when they came, man were they good! Jeff had one and Josh and I shared one. They were spicy, but I think it was mostly due to garlic. Josh was still hungry so we cruised back to a flat bread place we saw earlier that did spelt flatbread pizzas. Another winner! It had meatballs, garlic sauce, and arugula and man was it tasty!

With the primal urge for food satisfied, we meandered toward St. James Park, popping in and out of shops and doing some final souvenir shopping. Wandering around St. James Park was thoroughly enjoyable. There are lovely ponds with swans and other waterfowl - Josh loved watching the geese, swans, and coots by the banks, gobbling up food. The grounds are beautiful with lush flower beds and stately trees. We saws signs for a playground so we went to investigate, but upon arrival, we found that it was better suited for smaller kids. So we improvised, finding a nice patch of lawn and laying down for a nap :)

After a quick recharge of the batteries we headed off to the waterfront. We wanted to go to the Tower Bridge area to hunt down a Tesla display in front of the Design Museum. Since we had done lots of buses and subways we opted to take a boat on the Thames - something we hadn't done before. The ride was very pleasant, even though, it was a little rough - just a little! We got some entertaining commentary on the way from the boatman and then it was time to walk again. After a few stops and starts, we finally found the display on the opposite side of the River from the Tower of London and a bit further down. It is the chassis of the Model S in a cube outside of the museum. It appears to be part of an exhibition on innovation. We photographed, posted on FB and checked it off our list!

We had wanted one more dinner out, but on arriving at the restaurant Jeff thought looked promising, we found it closed for renovation. It was okay though, that has to happen at least once a trip! It did however, present us with one more opportunity for Indian food. For several days now, we have passed a take away shop called the Bombay Burrito. Jeff had read that they had good reviews and he was dying to go. So while Josh and I hung out in the room, Jeff went to procure food - a Tikka Masala Burrito from the shop and then a meat pie and mash from another shop. Both were fantastic! I doubt you will ever find a burrito like that anywhere else. Of course, we devoured everything so fast, we didn't take any pictures!

Now it is time to relax, pack, and watch England vs. Scotland on the telly. It's the first time they have played each other in 14 years. There were Scotsmen in kilts all over town today. It's quit a game, currently tied 2-2!  Anyway, it is a nice way to unwind before a long travel day tomorrow!

Tesla Model S Display

Royal Greetings to the Lego Floor

Why do they only put sprinkles on one side of the donut?

Karen's new favorite phrase

Lego Salute!

Phone booth made completely out of Legos!

Cupcake heaven at Hamley's

At St James Park

At St James Park

At St James Park -- View of London Eye

Little Josh and Big Ben

Tower Bridge

Kensington Palace & Harrods

While the Halters were busy packing for their journey home (tomorrow), we spent the morning to ourselves.  Karen and Josh went out to get some breakfast food to-go (Karen I both are in love with their porridge) and then spent some reading/work time in the hotel room while Jeff went down the street to a gym to get his workout in.  We met up with the Halters for lunch at their flat and then headed out into town.  We learned very quickly that buses are not always the fastest and best way to get around town.  The bus took us 1.5 hours to get there.  First of all, our bus #30 never came after 25 minutes of waiting.  It is supposed to come every 8-10 minutes. Finally we hopped on another bus and went a different way.  (sure enough bus 30 came a few minutes later we saw)  The next bus took a very long time because it was going down Oxford street, which is the busiest street in town, even though they restrict it only to buses and taxis.  By the time we got to Kensington Palace, it was already 2:45pm. 

The Palace wasn't as interesting as we had hoped.  It was definitely a let down after seeing Buckingham Palace, that's for sure.  The nice thing was that they had a kids "Choose your own adventure" guide book which Josh had a blast with.  (well for a while)  They had people doing role-play inside many of the first rooms and Josh ate that up as you would expect.  The first room he was to meet the King's librarian.  The librarian did this whole bit with Josh about how Josh must be the King's most trusted person and how lucky he was to be in the King's inner circle.  The next room had a few people in dress asking kids to participate in an older card game. Josh played that (didn't beat the other kid) but still enjoyed it.  He quickly got the hang of the rules of the game.  We will need to look that one up when we get home -- he wants to play it again.  The rest of the palace wasn't quite as interesting.  They showed a lot of the gowns of the Queens, Kings, Princesses, etc. but honestly once you've seen one, they all seem just as good after that.  The building wasn't nearly as nice as Buckingham Palace.  Not even close.  So we wrapped up that walking tour and headed out.

Our next stop was to visit the famous Harrad's department store.  It was packed with people.  This store is enormous as many of you already know.  The bottom floor was flooded with people.  And lots of people were buying -- there were a lot of wealthy people here I guess -- many from the Middle East from what they were wearing.  We got some very good desserts.  We looked through the other floors and "browsed" the items.  All of the stuff is very high end but is interesting to look at. If the kids weren't there, I think we'd have more fun looking around.  But they weren't that interested after a certain point.  Tomorrow, we'll take Josh to the big toy store and let him have his own time in store that he likes!

Once we finished that, we headed back to the Halter's flat for Turkey burgers and finishing up their food in their fridge.  We learned our lesson about the buses and took the subway this time.  Of course it was rush hour (5:20pm) so we were squished for the first few stops but it was ok after that. 

The 4 adults went down to the local pub down the street from the flat for one last drink (leaving the kids upstairs with their electronics) and then we called it a night. 

Tomorrow the Halters head home and we spend our last full day in London.  We fly home Thursday afternoon. 

Outside Kensington Palace

Outside Kensington Palace

Hyde Park

Harrods

British Library, British Museum and London Eye

Today we only had a few major things to accomplish today, both of them in the morning.  Karen and Jenn got up a little earlier than the boys and went to tour the British Library. 

The British Library has one exhibition room, but it contains some of the most incredible books! Jenn had a Rick Steve's book that gave us the highlights of the room to look at. I think my favorites were the illuminated manuscripts. The artistry of these books has always fascinated me. The people how had them made must have had incredible wealth at their disposal as they are true works of art. The library is also famous for having one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta. They actually have two, but only one is on display. There were also various other books such as a Gutenberg Bible, One of Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks as well as works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. Basically, if it is literary and important, they probably have it here! Even though it was a small exhibition area, we were there 50 minutes and could have spent much longer if not for the fact we were meeting up with the boys!

The boys got to sleep in an hour longer and met up with them at the British Museum.  This is Karen's favorite museums in the world (and one of my favorite too!) but it is quite large so we can only do it piecemeal with kiddos.  Our goal was to see as much as we could in 1.5-2 hours, which is what we thought was the limit for everyone. We toured mostly the Egyptian and Assyrian exhibits, along with the Parthenon/Greek section.  Josh was quite fascinated with the Egyptian section, including the Rosetta Stone.  Josh's favorite piece was the Assyrian Gate Guardians -- two massive stone structures.  He was also a bit interested in how all of the pieces got to England -- and why they still have it and haven't given some of it back -- like the Parthenon pieces to Greece.  :)  Karen told Josh that she (and many others) jokingly call it the "Palace of Plunder".  Once we crossed the 1-1.5 hour mark though, Josh was at his saturation point and there was nothing else we could do to keep him interested.  So we flew through some of the early European stuff and headed out. 

We headed back to the Halter's flat to have lunch but first we had to stop off at a mini market downtown to get some fixings.  It was just after 1pm and it was absolutely mobbed.  We've never seen anything like it before.  They had a salad bar with at least 30 people waiting in it.  (the line was not moving very fast)  The aisles were jam packed and the checkout line was quite long as well -- but it was moving, very fast!  That's because they had about 30 checkout people (very very small checkout lanes) and 20 self-checkout lines.  In a very small space.  It was a wonder to efficiency!  (I loved it!) 

We had lunch at their flat and let Steve (who's back needs some rest) and the boys hang out there for the rest of the afternoon.  Karen, Jenn and I went out on the town to do some shopping and touring around in the Piccadilly part of town.  It is high tourist season here and it showed.  There were people everywhere.  We stopped back into Fortnum & Mason and got some more macarons and they were some of the best tasting ones we've had yet.  I tried on some shoes and shirts but didn't get anything.  There were certainly a lot of nice cars in that area of town.  :)

We headed to dinner to meet up with the boys -- eating at the Laughing Gravy, a restaurant we loved he last time we stayed here.  It did not disappoint again.  Everyone loved their food and desserts.  The kids all had hamburgers and we had a wide variety of food.  I had a chicken dish (it was good), and Karen had a brie and goat's milk and mature cheddar macaroni and cheese dish.  There were many deserts and everyone inhaled them, including a cherry crumble.

The Halters headed back to their flat and we went to the London Eye.  Karen and Josh went on it (I didn't want to do it) and loved it.  I might try it next time.  After that, we took the bus back to our hotel and called it a night.  The bus system here is incredibly good and we are finding more direct bus service to our destinations than by subway.  Plus, the buses go through some different and very pretty neighborhoods off the beaten track. (Karen is interjecting here: - the London Eye was incredible! You hardly feel like you are moving, or very high, for that matter! Josh enjoyed that interactive touch screens that were in the cabin. You can look at a day or night time view of your surroundings and click on various buildings. When you select a landmark, it gives you a short description of it. Josh liked the M16 building, which houses the British secret service. We went right at about sunset, so it was very pretty - however, it was difficult to take photos. So, we just have to have our memories!)

British Museum

British Museum

Both bottles for sale!

High rent district

London Eye

View from London Eye

At Sunset

View from London Eye

View from London Eye

Buckingham Palace and High Tea

Today we slowed down the pace a bit. Don't get me wrong, we still did stuff, we just didn't cram the whole day full. It was an early morning because we had to pack up, check out and store our bags at the Hyatt before we went to our 9:45am tour of Buckingham Palace. Either the previous times I have been in London, you couldn't tour the Palace, or we had just never thought to do it. Well, it was incredible. We have toured plenty of Palaces and Castle, however, none of them had a currently reigning monarch in them! Most of the time you look at "historically accurate" and restored and reproduced furnishings. Not here! It was opulence to a degree I have not seen in person. Most people think Versailles, but this is better. Of course, you only tour in a small portion of the Palace, 19 staterooms. The place has over 700 rooms! I think there are 240 bedrooms alone!! It is almost hard to describe. Everything is guilt and marble and elegant. I think my favorite part is a special exhibition they are having in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years on the throne. In the banquet room they have much of the clothing that was worn at her 1953 coronation. Her coronation gown and jewels as well as other members of the royal family. It is just over the top. The Purple coronation robe alone took over 3,500 hours to create! Josh told me he loved the last hall that contains statues by the sculptor Canova. I have to agree with him - they have a lovely, classical sense of movement. Also cool was the Grand Staircase and the music room. It's too bad you can't take pictures inside, but there are plenty out there and besides, sometimes it's nice to put down the camera and soak it all in. The tour took just about an hour and half and that was actually good timing because it allowed Jeff and I to switch hotels, while Josh went back with the Halters.

The new hotel is nothing special. I would say it is about a notch above the Premier Inn we stayed in last year. But, in the big scheme of things, it's just a place to lay our heads - we are hardly here! After the switch, we joined up with the Halters and headed out to an unexpected highlight of our trip - afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason. Since the tea house was in Piccadilly Circus, we went a little early so we could ride down Regent's Road on the bus and look at all the shops. It was a good thing we stuck to the bus - Regent's Road was a sea of humanity! There were people everywhere! When we got off the bus we wandered for just a bit and went in a large bookstore, Waterstones, to pass the time. Fortnum and Mason is much more than a tea parlor. It is a grand 5 story edifice that is crown by a tea saloon on the top floor. The other floors sell all manner of food and tea and culinary accessories. Unfortunately, we didn't browse beforehand and by the time we finished the shop was closed for the evening. I think we will try to get back there before we leave though. Anyway, the tea saloon is elegant and refined - all gilt and baby blue. The tea itself was spectacular! I took the traditional afternoon tea with an assorted of finger sandwiches, while Jeff opted for the high tea that skips the sandwiches but serves one savory item. Jeff got the Scotch Egg, which he pronounced one of the best things he has ever eaten! After the savories came the scones, plain and fruit studded, with clotted cream, lemon curd, and all kinds of jam. There were also cookies, the a delicate selection of desserts which included chocolate petit fours, rose eclair, and several other bites. After that, you could select from the cake trolley! Jeff had a piece of Battenberg cake while I opted for a lime and raspberry sort of cake, dense but tasty. Oh, I also had a nice glass of champagne to start things off. The best part?? Josh LOVED the tea! He enjoyed the whole thing. He wanted to try tea, so I got him a pot of chamomile and we put sugar and milk in and he thought it was great! He ate all his tea sandwiches, except the cucumber one and absolutely devoured his scone and the sweet treats on the top which included a linzer cookie, a macaron (ok, we helped with that one), and a chocolate cupcake. He said that he would like to have tea again sometime!

Anyway, nothing much to report after that. We were so full that we opted to walk down Regent's Road back to the Underground instead of hoping a bus. After a brief visit at the Halter's flat we decided to call it an early night!

Outside Buckingham Palace

Scotch Egg

Outside Buckingham Palace

Outside Buckingham Palace

Outside Buckingham Palace

Gardens at the Palace

Oxford Circus Madness on a Sunday

Josh at tea

Our tea plates of cookies, scones and desserts

Fortnum & Mason

London

Pics of London and Churchill War Rooms Day

We didn't have time to upload pics yesterday with the blog.  Here are some.

Josh and Ben

Does Josh know what a pay phone really is?

Outside the War Rooms

War Rooms

War Rooms

War Rooms

The boys in Horse Guard's Parade

Horse Guard's Parade

St. Paul's Cathedral

London and Churchill War Rooms

It's Saturday and so almost all of the major tourist attractions are extremely crowded.  So we decided to make our weekends a bit lighter so we could relax and enjoy our time here.  Today we had only one tourist site on our list -- the Churchill War Rooms.  We got there right when it opened at 9:30am and it was empty.  I (Jeff) was really looking forward to this because everyone has said how amazing this place is -- and I love World War II memorabilia and information.  It did not disappoint.  They have remade all the bunkers and rooms exactly like it would have been at the end of the war in 1945.  In addition, they had a very well done museum section that talked all about Churchill's life from childhood through the end.  We spent a couple of hours there and I could have spent a couple more.  The kids found it pretty interesting.  I find that Josh has little patience with museums and reading things on the wall.  The audio guides are more interesting for him but only because he can play (dork) around with the audio device.  He even said he doesn't do well with audio guides.  (loses interest)  But the minute Jenn Halter started talking to him and Andy and Joey about the war, he is instantly interested.  He was mesmorized by anything to do with strategy and "why" things happened that way.  He would try to reason out why some events happened the way they did and Jenn would correct him and then he would think about it and say "Ah, yes, that does make sense.."  You could literally see the wheels turning in his head.  At the gift store, they had some kids books in the "Horrible Histories" series relating to WWII and England.  He wanted to get those so we did -- and he was reading the WWII one after lunch and loving it.  We will need to spend more time in the future preparing him for some of these exhibits so he can better enjoy it when he goes.  (mental note for next time)

After that, we headed to Barbecoa for brunch.  The food here is very good (not cheap) and we got to sample quite a bit among the 7 of us.  The kids all had waffles (the Halter boys had chocolate waffles -- Josh just had plan of course).  Karen had amazing granola.  I (as did Jenn) had a very well seasoned Cobb Salad (didn't need dressing) and Steve had pulled pork waffles.  And we sampled their hamburger.  Very tasty stuff.

At this point, we all split up in different directions.  I (Jeff) went back to the hotel to do my longer (2.5 hr) (zzzzzzz) elliptical workout.  Karen and Jenn went to the Borough Market to get food for dinner.  Steve took the boys back to their rental unit (flat) to relax and rest up.  We all met back at their flat later for dinner (sausages, bread, cheese, nuts, fruit..).  They rented a place in a part of London called Islington.  Nice rental unit.  Lots of space. 

We are going to head out to a local bar (that's been around forever) down the street while we leave the kids in the flat.  Then we'll trek back to our hotel for our last night there.  Tomorrow we have to check out and switch hotels to one here in Islington.  And we'll visit Buckingham Palace. 

Touring Bath

We had been looking forward to visiting Bath for many reasons and it did not disappoint. Bath has always been on my list due to it's ancient Roman Baths and its general beauty. We were also excited because we were once again meeting my good friend Sian and this time, all three of her children. Josh was very excited to see William again after almost a year and they picked up right were they left off. Josh also really enjoyed introducing William to Andy and Joey. I thought just the three of them  were a circus, adding another one to the mix was craziness - but in a fun way! Nelly and Emily are Sian's two girls and they are so cute! Sian warned me in advance that there were whiny, etc, but they really weren't that bad at all. In fact, they were troopers - we did a lot of walking!

We began with Roman Baths. They were really very nice. You can tell it was part of a much larger complex, even though we can't see the whole thing today. All I can say, is thank goodness for audio guides - it kept the boys slightly interested and the girls enrapt. They wanted to listen to every bit of commentary. As such, they boys and everyone else were done well ahead of Sian, the girls and I! Still, it was very cool. The rectangular main bath was quite large and had a greenish hue - don't know if it would have been this way back in the day. As you walk along you can smell the sulpher and see the gases bubbling up in the water. They also have one of my favorite components of ancient baths - the sauna. You can always tell this room because it has little brick pylons remaining all over the floor. These would have supported the ancient floor and allow steam and heat to circulate beneath. Pretty cool! At the end of it, it was time to try a taste of the healing bath water. Jenn and I went into the Pump Room - the very fancy restaurant we had wanted to eat at, but took one look inside and saw how nice it was and realized. No way. Not with 6 children. Anyway, the water bubbled out of an old stone fount and a gentlemen there got a glass each for us - yuck! It was not tasty water. I don't care what it was supposed to heal - yuck!

By this time all the kids were dying of hunger, so we went off in search of a cheese shop that was on Jenn's list. We found it and it was small, and full of really great local cheese. The only problem was that it took a long time, so the natives got really restless. So, we went to the market to get sandwiches and ended up just eating there. Originally the plan was to get food and eat by the river, but everyone was too hungry by then. The Guildhall market, wasn't really anything special, just a food counter and some tourist type shops.

After this we toured Bath Abbey, because this one didn't cost 10 pounds a person to get in, like York Minster! It was nice inside. There were children giving a steel drum concert inside and that did generate a lot of noise! Nearby was Sally Lunn's - home of the Sally Lunn bun, which is sort of an enormous hamburger bun that tastes kind of like a croissant! Sally Lunn's was the first residence in Bath. The bun was good, if not quite what we were expecting! At this point, the Halter's were done and decided to head back. Fueled, by sweets - we pressed on with Sian's family! Sian bought a selection of typical English sweets like Acid drops, pears drops, and strawberries and cream drops. Little sucking candies really - and pretty tasty!

From this point it was mostly just wandering around. We walked up to the Circus, where rich people taking a holiday at the Baths would stay and also having some importance to Jane Austen. Finally, we ended up at the Royal Crescent - a large curving building of apartments that the REALLY rich people would have stayed in! This was probably the best part of our day there because the boys found some really cool trees to climb, so they had a great time. After awhile (and an increase in whining from the girls) we headed back to the tree station and it was great timing as Sian's train came within 5 minutes and ours within 10! Back at the hotel we struck out for dinner and on the way to the recommended restaurants we found a Wagamama. Done! It was a long, fun day!

Bath Abbey

Roman Baths

Roman Baths

Roman Baths

6 Kids we found in Bath

Royal Crescent

Royal Crescent

Tree Climbing Fun

William and Josh